This invention relates to a muscle clamp and particularly a muscle clamp used in ocular surgery to hold an eye during surgery to correct a strabismus condition.
Strabismus is caused by lack of coordination of movement of the eyes. Movement of the eyes is controlled by eye muscles. Sometimes these eye muscles do not work together and the eyes may be non-synchronized in their movements. If the condition is severe, surgery to either shorten or lengthen an eye muscle may be necessary. To perform this surgery, the eye muscle must be severed from the eye and then re-attached at a different point. After the muscle has been cut, the eye must be held so the eye muscle can be re-attached at a precise location. A muscle clamp is used to rotate and move the eye to a desired position and then hold the eye stationary in that position during the surgery.
Muscle clamps have been used in the past in ocular surgery. These muscle clamps typically consist of a single pair of tiny jaws that can be moved together to clamp the schlera tissue of an eyeball and can be separated to release the tissue. The problem with these typical muscle clamps is that a single clamp does not afford enough control and leverage to rotate and move an eye to a precise position and hold it there. During a suturing operation, it is necessary for the eye to be held in such a way that the surgeon can attach an entire edge of the muscle to the eyeball. Therefore, using the existing muscle clamps, two such muscle clamps are required, to be clamped to the schlera at spaced points. Each muscle clamp must be held in a separate hand. Therefore, since one of the surgeon's hands must handle the suture needle or its holder, he has only one free hand and an assistant is required. The assistant must use both hands, one for each muscle clamp. This means the assistant does not have a free hand for doing other helpful work.
Also, there may be times when the surgeon would prefer or would be required to handle the muscle clamp himself and if so, in the present state of the art, he must make both of his hands available. An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a dual jaw muscle clamp that clamps and holds the tissue at two spaced points and that can be held in one hand.
An object of the present invention is to provide a dual muscle clamp having two separate pairs of jaws that work together to clamp tissue, such as the schlera of an eye, at spaced points. Pursuant to this object, the muscle clamp of the present invention can be handled with one hand and the one hand can manipulate both of the pairs of clamping jaws simultaneously to precisely position the clamped eyeball. Accordingly, another object of the invention is to provide a dual muscle clamp for use in ocular surgery wherein the clamping can be accomplished with only one hand thereby enabling the surgeon to handle the muscle clamp himself while the surgeon's other hand is handling a suturing needle or a needle holder; or thereby requiring only one hand of an assistant to handle the clamping means.
Another problem with the prior art muscle clamps is that the handles by which they are held are not comfortable or are awkward or have only one or two ways in which they can be comfortably and conveniently held. These restrictions limit the maneuverability of the muscle clamp to precisely locate the muscle clamping jaws. An object of the present invention is to provide a dual muscle clamp that has a handle that is comfortable to hold and that enables precise maneuvering of the muscle clamp. Specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a dual muscle clamp with a cylindrical handle, the handle being substantially similar in diameter to the diameter of a mechanical pencil, the length of the handle being such that a portion of it can be gripped within the thumb and first two fingers of the hand and the rearward portion of the handle will rest against the hypothenar space of the hand.
Another important object of the invention is to provide a dual muscle clamp with a handle that is substantially identical to the handle on other surgical instruments used by the surgeon in sequence in the course of a single surgical operation.